As payer and stakeholder anger mounts, when will the oncology drug price bubble burst?

Global cancer drug prices have increased by 10% every year between 1995 and 2013. That level of price inflation is not sustainable or winning pharma any friends. In this expert report, US and EU payers note that monopolistic pricing for novel products that represent the only therapeutic option, or the high prices demanded for treatments with minimal therapeutic benefits, cannot always be afforded or justified. Moderate payers are looking to pharma to act, less moderate payers want government intervention and price controls. Pharma risks killing the goose that laid the golden egg and payers warn it's time to get real about cancer drug pricing if pharma wants widespread reimbursement and market access.

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Why this report is important to you

What the report will enable you to do

Full report contents

Why this report is important to you

Oncological care is an area that has seen some of the steepest spending increases in the past two decades. In 2017, annual spending on anti-cancer drugs was approximately $100 billion globally, but this figure is predicted to rise to $150 billion by 2020. Some price rises have been triggered by the advent of a more sophisticated understanding of the pathophysiology of cancer, and more effective treatments mean that patients are often living longer and therefore spending on costly therapies puts pressure on the public and private purses. Payers recognise that some high-cost high-technology drugs provide profound patient improvement and, in the wider context of alternative interventions, make commercial sense. But therapies of minimal value, or products priced for rare cancers and then extended to common cancers, are facing mounting resistance. Pharma can no longer hide behind the claim that high prices are needed to pay for overall R&D spend and investment – many payers see price as driven by nothing more than profit. The ball is in pharma's court to respond and really prove the prices they want represent value.

This report will enable you to...

Understand the diverse pricing and reimbursement environments in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain

Deliver the real world data that is supportive of payer decision making

Appraise payer attitudes to innovative contracting and know why payment by results is not universally popular

Know what factors payers would like to see considered when setting prices

Leverage the value biomarkers and companion diagnostics have in gaining payer support